Interoperability Scenarios to Measure Informal Learning Carried Out in PLEs

Achieving success in the application of Information and Communications Technology to teaching and learning processes can be challenging. One possible reason for this is the failure to take into account the student as end-user when implementing technologies. In particular, student requirements to access different sources of information and collaborate with other students during their learning can be constrained by the nature of institutional technology which presents barriers to integrating formal and informal learning: students do not only learn in the institutional context but from their experiences throughout the course of daily life. Institutional Learning Management Systems are not enough to meet these needs for increased integration of informal learning, technological practice and formal learning. The efforts to develop effective Personal Learning Environments attempt to solve this, providing a space where students can use the tools they want. But this presents a problem with regard to the management and measurement of learning success. This paper poses some interoperability scenarios to allow the assessment of the personalized informal activity, and in this way, obtain measurable information about the advantages of personalization in Learning.

I. Introduction

End-user involvement in the design of technology is not new. However, with the emergence of Web2.0 [1] together with the perceived difficulties in the implementation of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in learning, a refocus on the user's role in taking ownership of their learning technology has gained much support. The ICT application in Learning contexts was seen as a “silver bullet” to achieve better results. However whilst the ICT application represent an important advance in many contexts (for example, the rise of mobile 'apps'), it does not work with learning [2], [3].